My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures

Martin Friedland’s recent book My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures is both a personal memoir and a lively review of much that has happened in Canadian legal policy during the last forty years.

Christopher Moore, Law Times

All in all, My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures by Martin L. Friedland is a wonderful autobiography of an individual who has accomplished much and who has observed, studied and commented upon the critical issues of the last half-century with aplomb, insight and becoming modesty.

Gilles Renaud, Criminal Law Quarterly

“The landscape of Canadian law has changed dramatically over the past forty years and Martin L. Friedland has witnessed much of it from the front lines. My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures is a pleasure to read, and takes us through a fascinating discussion of how law was practiced, studied, and legislated before cell phones, faxes, emails, and the Internet changed the world. Friedland’s experiences have brought him into contact with a who’s who of legal giants, and this book tells the story of how they have shaped today’s legal environment. You cannot tell the story of Martin L. Friedland without also telling the story of Canadian jurisprudence of the past forty years. I recommend this to anyone with an interest in the history of law in Canada.”

Edward L. Greenspan, Q.C., senior partner of Greenspan, White

‘Not surprisingly, Martin L. Friedland has written an excellent book which lucidly achieves his goal of combining a personal memoir with a historical and analytical investigation of a number of areas of law and public policy. This book is a fitting tribute to a scholar whose writing and academic adventures reveal entrepreneurial, eclectic, empirical, doctrinal, policy, and intellectual talents that are rarely found in one individual. His many contributions in so many fields that are chronicled in such an interesting way in these memoirs are unsurpassed by any contemporary Canadian legal scholar. My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures  is a remarkable account by a remarkable academic.’

The Honourable Frank Iacobucci, C.C., Q.C.

‘Martin L. Friedland has given us an enormously interesting and engaging account of his life as a scholarly and practical law reformer. His work touches virtually every field of criminal law that has been on the public agenda over the last half century. It has the great merit of illuminating not only the legal issues at stake but the politics of law reform.’

Peter H. Russell, University Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Toronto

‘For those who were involved, directly or indirectly, in the process of criminal law reform that preceded the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, this book will evoke a pre-renaissance in Canadian law, an era in which Martin L. Friedland was a leading artist. For aspiring young scholars, it should provide comfort in the face of a daunting task since it demonstrates unequivocally that many good things can come from buying a Sunbeam Alpine.’

Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights